Alexander Kothe, Robert Luckner
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2015-007
High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft contain a large aspect ratio and thus a low induced drag. Recent developments in this field are connected to highly flexible aircraft. Unfortunately, these aircraft have some inconveniences. At TU Berlin’s department of Flight Mechanics, Flight Control and Aeroelasticity a new aircraft concept, especially for HALE aircraft, is investigated. It concentrates on the coupling of several individual rigid body aircraft to an aircraft formation with a high aspect ratio. This paper introduces the concept of such a multi-body aircraft and focuses on the flight mechanic modeling and analysis. The later use of it as a HALE aircraft is not part of this paper. From two up to ten rigid body aircraft are bounded in two different configurations to form a new aircraft system. A steady flight mechanic investigation is undertaken out to determine the flight performance in trimmed conditions. Based on the steady state, the dynamic flight mechanic investigation is carried out. The findings of both, of the steady and of dynamic investigation are used to define requirements for the aircraft design and the flight controller synthesis of a multi-body aircraft with the purpose as HALE aircraft.